Pony.ai gets autonomous-driving license in Beijing

Pony.ai, an autonomous-driving startup, said on Monday that it has received a public road testing license in Beijing for its driverless vehicles.

Pony.ai, an autonomous-driving startup, said on Monday that it has received a public road testing license in Beijing for its driverless vehicles.

Beijing released its first batch of road test permits for Baidu in March. So far, other Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Chongqing have also licensed driverless vehicles.

Pony.ai received T3 licenses, said Li Hengyu, director of the company's research and development center in Beijing.

Beijing has earmarked 33 roads with a total length of 105 kilometers for autonomous car testing outside the Fifth Ring Road and away from densely-populated areas.

According to regulations for managing road testing for driverless vehicles, the vehicles are eligible for public road testing only after they have completed 5,000 kilometers of daily driving in designated closed test fields and passed assessments.

The test vehicles must be equipped with monitoring devices that can monitor driving behavior, collect vehicle location information and monitor whether a vehicle is in driverless mode.